Government Affairs and Advocacy

I promised to share an update when I had received notes from FCDO - so here it is!

I have been in two recent meetings

1. A meeting on September 10 with Juliet Chua and a variety of officials which is focused on finance and funding issues. (Official Notes attached)

2. The Steering Group meeting on September 18, which looks at all aspects of FCDO's response to COVID-19. That meeting was  focused on human rights and governance, but we tend to touch on general issues including funding and finance at eth beginning of the meeting. (No official notes available yet)

Plus we have received written answers to written questions Bond and Humentum put to Juliet Chua. These are also attached.

The 2-minute summary

I imagine some of you want a 2-minute summary, with also my opinions as to what is really going on, so here it is but please accept the caveat that it contains my opinions and extrapolation - you can only rely on the Official Notes.

• The cutting process is nearly over and if you haven't been asked to cut already - you are probably safe now. (NB 70% of the cuts were made to multilaterals, i.e. UN etc, and only 30% from the bilateral budget, which is spent mainly through country offices.)
  
  
• Although FCDO 'launched' at the beginning of September, they have only appointed a handful of top positions so far.  In reality the old DFID staffing structure is operating largely as before below that, and they are still using all the old DFID rules and processes. (In reality they are operating parallel finance systems, rules etc for DFID and FCO).  We don't know yet whether the DFID Smart Rules and big advocacy wins we have previously had like the DFID NPAC process will continue into the future FCDO.
  
  
• Don't expect anything fast to happen, as everything is pending the Integrated Review (which is about the new strategy post merger of DFID and FCO). They cannot determine the structure or programming without this strategy so they are basically stalled, (as we know the Prime Minister rushed forward the merger announcement, which I have written about before, in scathing terms).
  
  
• Furthermore we can expect the pipeline to be a trickle anyway until the next cross-UK Government Spending Review is finished.  This is because there are rules which mean FCDO cannot commit to many multi-year agreements while such a spending review is pending.  And even if they were 'able' to make spending commitments - the uncertainty about what 0.7% of GNI will be in 2021 in a continuing pandemic post-Brexit world - is making them cautious and wanting to hold money back to respond.
  
  
• So for now, I believe we will see little FCDO programming beyond the £190m funding package that has been announced for coronavirus and famine.  And only a (probably small) portion of this will be used to fund NGOs.  Any money that is being allocated is likely to relate to the priorities announced by Dominic Raab: "poverty reduction for the "bottom billion", tackling climate change and reversing biodiversity loss, championing girl's education, the global response to COVID-19 and Britain as a force for good in the world."

I'd welcome your questions about all this or anything else you want to know.

ICAI (the independent Commission on Aid Impact), which I am glad to say they have retained after some significant pressure, has just announced quite an interesting review. They are going to review all procurement of new aid programming in response to the Covid-19 pandemic from commercial suppliers and NGOs, during the period 1 January to 2 September 2020.  But it will NOT cover the cutting decisions or process.  If you want to feed me any reflections about DFID's procurement during that time - I'd be happy to funnel them into ICAI wither attributed to you or anonymously, as you prefer.

Stay safe and well

Tim  

Attachment(s)

100920 FCDO Readout - supplier engagement call.pdf   97 KB 1 version

BOND Questions to DFID_Aug2020 -Juliet Chua.pdf   166 KB 1 version